Outdoor sponsored events and activities have gained in popularity over the last several years. During sponsored events and activities such as carnivals, fairs, sporting events, trade shows or the like, various areas are partitioned off to define the area for a particular activity or event. Sporting events sponsored by local and/or national advertisers are very common year-round. These sponsored activities include basketball, volleyball, tennis, hockey, bike racing, skating courses, obstacle courses, skill games, etc. Many of these sponsored activities are one- or two-day events and are commonly situated in a park, a parking lot, a city street, etc. At such events, the event organizer is typically required to assemble temporary facilities for the particular sponsored event or events. Typically, metal or wooden fences are temporarily assembled to partition off various areas for the events. Structures for concession stands, amusement activities, information booths, retail stands, etc. also have to be temporarily assembly for the event. Such structures are also typically wooden and/or metal structures. An event such as outdoor hockey requires a rink to be set up. Such rinks typically include a metal and wood or a foam and vinyl structure which forms the peripheral boundary of the rink. Other types of outdoor events include challenge courses. These challenge courses typically include one or more obstacles for a participant to overcome. Like the rink setup, these challenge courses typically include fenced boundaries and other structures to define the course. Skill games, such as ball pitch games, typically include a metal and wood or a foam and vinyl structure. Such fences, barriers, and other structures require a substantial amount of time and manpower to transport, assemble and disassemble. It is not uncommon for an event organizer to spend several days preparing a site for a single day event. Events which require a large structure to be assembled, such as skating rinks for outdoor hockey and/or challenge courses, require even more time and expense to set up. Although these outdoor sponsored events have become very popular with the public, the complexity and cost of setting up and sponsoring such events has caused many sponsors to limit the number of sponsored events and/or seek other, less expensive and complex activities to sponsor.
Many of these past problems have been addressed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,937,586 and Des. 413,169, which are incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,586 discloses an inflatable device which includes one or more inflatable modules. At least one air portal is positioned in the inflatable module to form a fluid passageway between the interior of the inflatable module and an adjacently positioned inflatable module. Multiple inflatable modules can be connected together to form a variety of structures. Such structures can include, but are not limited to, a skating rink, wall partitions, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,586 discloses two principal configurations to connect two or more inflatable modules together. In one configuration, two adjacently positioned inflatable modules share a common side wall and a common air portal. The inflatable modules form a sectional unit designed to be inflated and deflated together. In another configuration, two adjacently positioned inflatable modules each have an individual side panel and side air portal. The adjacently positioned side panels of the two inflatable modules are connected together permanently or by a quick connect arrangement to facilitate the connecting and separating of the inflatable modules during assembly and disassembly, respectively. The two adjacently positioned air portals can also be connected together. The air portals between the inflatable modules can be designed to limit the fluid flow between the inflatable modules to at least partially control the pressure in various modules and/or to dampen the pressure fluctuations between various inflatable modules.
Many of the past problems associated with temporary booths or other covered structures have been addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,679 and Des. 365,400, which are incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,679 and Des. 365,400 disclose an inflatable structure that can function as a portable booth for retail, information, concessions and/or amusement activities at various outdoor sponsored events. This inflatable structure can be conveniently and quickly assembled and disassembled at various outdoor sponsored events without the need to build or assemble metal and/or wood structures at such events.
Although U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,679; 5,937,586; Des. 365,400; and Des. 413,169 disclose a significant improvement in assembling portable structures and connecting together various types of inflatable modules, there remains a need for a connection arrangement for inflatable modules that need to be periodically replaced due to wear, and/or for inflatable modules that are interchangeable to meet a particular use of the inflatable system. In certain types of inflatable systems such as, but not limited to, obstacle courses, challenge courses, hockey rinks, etc., certain components are subject to an increased amount of wear, thereby resulting in such components needing to be periodically replaced. For instance, in an inflatable obstacle course, there may include one or more inflatable obstacle structures such as, but not limited to, inflatable tire shaped components for running through, inflatable walls to climb over, inflatable obstacle pillars to run through, and the like. These types of components are subject to significantly increased wear as opposed to the inflatable running surface of the inflatable obstacle course and the boundary walls of the inflatable obstacle course. In past designs for the inflatable obstacle course, these inflatable obstacle structures were sewn to the surface of the inflatable obstacle course. Connection mechanisms such as VELCRO, and zippers were not used, since such connection mechanisms did not retain the inflatable obstacle structures in place, and/or became damaged during use. As a result, when one or more inflatable obstacle structures needed to be replaced, the inflatable obstacle course had be completely deflated and sent to the manufacturer so that the worn or damaged inflatable obstacle structures could be unstitched and removed and new inflatable obstacle structures could be restitched onto the inflatable obstacle course. In addition to the time, cost and inconvenience of having to ship the complete inflatable obstacle course to the manufacturer for repair, the restitching of the new inflatable obstacle structures onto the inflatable obstacle course was both time consuming and complex due to the shapes of the inflatable obstacle structures.
Another problem associated with prior obstacle courses, challenge courses, etc. was that the configuration of the obstacle courses, challenge courses, etc. could not be altered without having to deflate the course and send the course back to the manufacturer for modifications. As a result, the course could not be modified or changed to accommodate various types of events, such as for different age groups, different sexes, different ability levels, etc. In addition, inflatable sponsorship components on the inflatable course could not be easily changed to reflect the different sponsors at different events.
In view of problems and costs associated with replacing inflatable components on an inflatable system and/or modifying the inflatable components on the inflatable system, there is a need for a simple and cost effective connection device which can be used to quickly and cost effectively replace worn inflatable components and/or change out inflatable components on an inflatable system.